Washougal Win is Sixth Straight for Dungey

The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship made its annual swing through the beautiful Pacific Northwest on Saturday for the Washougal National -- round eight of the 2012 series. Establishing himself as the dominant 450-class rider on tour, Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey rolled into Washington state with 10 straight moto wins under his belt (five consecutive overalls), and looked to extend his massive championship points lead with yet another dominant performance.

When the smoke finally cleared between Washougal’s pristine pine trees, Dungey once again prevailed, but not without some heavy competition from his closest championship rival, Mike Alessi, in moto one.

In the 250 class, Marvin Musquin had what was no doubt his best performance of the year on the challenging Washington soil. Though only able to match his series-best result with a fourth-place overall, he set the fastest lap time during the morning’s timed qualifying sessions and went on to lead most of 250 moto number one before collecting his first-ever American Motocross podium with a strong third-place moto finish.

Not to be outdone by their male counterparts, the ladies of the Women’s Motocross Championship series returned to action at Washougal and Red Bull’s Ashley Fiolek dominated both WMX motos with impressive wins. Behind Fiolek, Red Bull teammate Tarah Gieger battled to a second overall finish aboard her TLD Honda.

450 Highlights

When the gate dropped for 450 moto one, Mike Alessi grabbed the holeshot and early lead as he’s done in the vast majority of motos this year, but he had Josh Grant and Ryan Dungey breathing down his neck. By lap three, Dungey had moved into the second spot ahead of Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer and began reeling in Alessi, who had opened up a five-second gap up front.

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With roughly 10 minutes remaining in the moto, Dungey began applying heavy pressure to Alessi, who was doing everything in his power to keep the KTM rider at bay. Dungey unfortunately went down after being taken wide in a right-hand corner, and in an incredible effort, he miraculously caught back up to Alessi with just three laps to go and began hunting for an open lane to get by the Suzuki rider. In the end, it was too little too late, however, as Alessi held off Dungey at the stripe, effectively ending his impressive 10-moto win streak.

Unsatisfied with second, Dungey rolled to the line for moto two with added motivation to keep his overall win streak intact. Beating Alessi at his own game, Dungey rocketed out of the gate to grab the holeshot and gave the rest of the field zero opportunity to retaliate as he immediately opened up a comfortable lead. Laying down consistent lap times that were, on average, two seconds quicker than his closest competitor, Dungey checked out to take the moto two win, over 31 seconds ahead of Alessi in second.

“Hats off to Mike [Alessi]… He rode a great race in the first moto,” Dungey said from the podium. “I was definitely a little bummed to see my moto win streak come to an end, but if anything it just gave me even more motivation to come out hard in the second moto. At the end of the day, the championship is all that really matters, so I’m happy with the overall and the points.”

Despite giving up a moto win at Washougal, Dungey maintains an 80-point lead in the championship as the series enters a two-week break before returning at Southwick on August 11th.

450 MOTO 1 RESULTS

450 MOTO 2 RESULTS

OVERALL RESULTS

1.

Mike Alessi

1.

Ryan Dungey

1.

Ryan Dungey

2.

Ryan Dungey

2.

Mike Alessi

2.

Mike Alessi

3.

Jake Weimer

3.

Andrew Short

3.

Andrew Short

4.

Andrew Short

4.

Broc Tickle

4.

Jake Weimer

5.

Justin Brayton

5.

Jake Weimer

5.

Broc Tickle

6.

Broc Tickle

6.

Josh Grant

6.

Tommy Hahn

7.

Tommy Hahn

7.

Tommy Hahn

7.

Kyle Chisholm

8.

Kyle Chisholm

8.

Fredrik Noren

8.

Christian Craig

9.

Weston Peick

9.

Christian Craig

9.

Weston Peick

10.

Christian Craig

10.

Kyle Chisholm

10.

Josh Grant

250 Highlights

After setting the fastest lap time during the morning qualifying sessions, Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin jumped out to an incredible start in 250 moto number one to take control of the lead early on. Behind Musquin, series championship contenders Justin Barcia, Eli Tomac, Blake Baggett, and Musquin's KTM teammate Ken Roczen rounded out the top five.

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After leading the first 11 of 16 laps, Musquin finally gave way to a hard-charging Barcia on lap 12 and then dropped one more position to Tomac on lap 13. Holding strong in the third spot, Musquin crossed the line to collect his first-ever moto podium in the States. Roczen finished strong in fourth.

In moto two, Musquin worked his way to as high as third after a top-five start but would eventually settle in to finish the race in fourth behind Baggett, Barcia, and Tomac. The Frenchman’s 3-4 moto scores tallied for fourth overall on the day, matching his best result of the series thus far. Roczen unfortunately finished moto two with a disappointing seventh after starting well outside the top 10, but managed to salvage a respectable fifth place overall to stay in championship contention with four more rounds still to go.

250 MOTO 1 RESULTS

250 MOTO 2 RESULTS

OVERALL RESULTS

1.

Justin Barcia

1.

Blake Baggett

1.

Justin Barcia

2.

Eli Tomac

2.

Justin Barcia

2.

Eli Tomac

3.

Marvin Musquin

3.

Eli Tomac

3.

Blake Baggett

4.

Ken Roczen

4.

Marvin Musquin

4.

Marvin Musquin

5.

Wil Hahn

5.

Justin Bogle

5.

Ken Roczen

6.

Blake Baggett

6.

Blake Wharton

6.

Blake Wharton

7.

Blake Wharton

7.

Ken Roczen

7.

Justin Bogle

8.

Ryan Sipes

8.

Ryan Sipes

8.

Wil Hahn

9.

Justin Bogle

9.

Jason Anderson

9.

Ryan Sipes

10.

Jason Anderson

10.

Wil Hahn

10.

Jason Anderson

WMX Highlights

After sitting out of last weekend’s Spring Creek National in Millville, Minnesota, the women of the WMX returned to action at Washougal for round six of their eight-race series. In need of race wins to continue slicing away at Jessica Patterson’s championship points lead, Red Bull’s Ashley Fiolek nailed two holeshots aboard her factory Honda to get both Washougal motos off on the right foot, eventually walking away with the overall win thanks to perfect 1-1 moto finishes.

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Fiolek’s victory didn’t come without a challenge from Patterson in moto number two, but the likeable Floridian held strong to take her fourth overall victory of the series. Despite missing round four at High Point due to a concussion, Fiolek now sits just 11 points behind Patterson for the championship.

Red Bull-backed TLD Honda’s Tarah Gieger finished the day with 3-2 moto scores -- good for second overall honors on the day. Like Fiolek, Gieger is also still in the championship mix and looks to take her first overall win of the series in Massachusetts after the two-week break in the action.

WMX MOTO 1 RESULTS

WMX MOTO 2 RESULTS

OVERALL RESULTS

1.

Ashley Fiolek

1.

Ashley Fiolek

1.

Ashley Fiolek

2.

Jessica Patterson

2.

Tarah Gieger

2.

Tarah Gieger

3.

Tarah Gieger

3.

Mariana Balbi

3.

Mariana Balbi

4.

Mariana Balbi

4.

Sara Petterson

4.

Jessica Patterson

5.

Sara Petterson

5.

Jacqueline Strong

5.

Sara Petterson

6.

Alexah Pearson

6.

Hailey Larson

6.

Jacqueline Strong

7.

Kasie Creson

7.

Kasie Creson

7.

Hailey Larson

8.

Hailey Larson

8.

Jessica Patterson

8.

Kasie Creson

9.

Jacqueline Strong

9.

Alexah Pearson

9.

Alexah Pearson

10.

Amanda Brown

10.

Sade Allender

10.

Amanda Brown

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